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More than half of U.S. counties now are classified by the federal government as natural disaster areas mostly because of the drought. The U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday added 218 counties in a dozen states as disaster areas, including six in Georgia.

Georgia home and business owners still can rely on federal disaster assistance. That's the word from Georgia emergency management officials as FEMA says, it's suspending some disaster payments in the wake of Hurricane Irene. A GEMA spokesman says, the federal agency is delaying payments for a certain types of completed, government-backed disaster repair going back years.